bike business

Election Day in Massachusetts is Tuesday, November 6th, and Bluebikes is hosting a Free Ride Day to help you get to your polling location. Grab a free Adventure Pass from the Bluebikes app on Election Day by using code BIKETOVOTE: gift codes to redeem at a Bluebikes kiosk will be made available from our website before Election Day. The Adventure Pass includes unlimited 2-hour trips for a 24-hour period, so you can #BiketoVote in style on Election Day.

Once you have your free pass, head over to our Bike to Vote Guide to find a Bluebikes station near your voting site.

The early voting period is open until Friday, November 2nd. Head over to our early voting blog post to learn more about how you can cast your vote. You don’t need a reason to vote early, you just need to be a resident of the municipality where you cast your vote. If you have any questions on how to vote early or find your polling location, stop by and speak to one of our ambassadors at our Bike to Vote Pop-up Event next week:

Boston City Hall Plaza | Thursday, November 1st | 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Let’s Go on a Boo-Bikes Ride: Halloween Edition

Celebrate Halloween and take Bluebikes to one of the many spooky events popping up across Metro Boston. From cheese and candy tastings to exploring historic graveyards in Boston, there is so much to do. We put together some of our favorite Halloween events and activities to attend across Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. Check out our Halloween Guide, and hop on a bike today.

Now in a Neighborhood Near You

You may have noticed our new stations in more neighborhoods across Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. Here is a look back on some of the major new updates and milestones for the Bluebikes system:

60+ New Stations

2,000+ Additional Docks

800+ Bikes Added to Fleet

Record Day: September 9th, 9,974 Rides

Pop-Quiz Time: Want the chance to win free one-month membership extension? With 800 additional bikes in the field, how many additional wheel spokes have been added to our fleet? Leave your guess on this form by midnight on Thursday, November 8. The closest guess will be announced on Friday, November 9.

Closing Out Women’s Bike Month

Women’s Bike and Brunch

A little rain could not put a damper on our Women’s Bike Month close-out celebrations. The event kicked off with brunch and networking at Lucy’s American Tavern on Saturday, October 27th. With weather in our favor, we closed out the weekend with a leisurely ride along the Neponset River Greenway on Sunday, taking in the peak fall foliage.

Thank you to all the amazing women that came out to support the event: this is the first of many rides to come! Head over to our blog and check out the full recap and see additional photos.

Behind-the-Scenes Feature: Lindsey

Lindsey has been with the Bluebikes team since 2013. With a little bit of experience in every department, she now serves as the Bluebikes Field Staff Manager:

“I’ve been most excited about collaborating with other departments to help make the expansion into Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roslindale a success. It’s exciting to see bike share in Boston reaching different neighborhoods.”

Head over to the Bluebikes blog and check out Lindsey’s full feature. Interested in joining the Bluebikes team? We’re hiring.

As Women’s Bike Month 2018 wraps up, we took some time to recap all of the amazing women that we featured throughout the month. Check out the #WBM2018 blog post to learn more about some of the women who bike in Metro Boston, and staff members that keep the Bluebikes system rolling.

After more than ten years, our award winning Bike Shop is moving out of 18 Bartlett Square in Jamaica Plain when our lease expires at the end of this year in December. In our recent Letter from the Director we shared our plan to move the Shop into the Brewery building with our Hub at 284 Amory Street providing increased visibility in an established business environment where we plan to build a seamless connection between our Bike Shop and Youth Pathways. By integrating our space, we plan to diversify apprenticeships for teens and increase participation among women, girls, and vulnerable communities in many aspects of our social enterprise beyond mechanics, including retail management, accounting, marketing, and leadership development. We plan to continue providing youth with income, tangible skills, connections to others and a safe space to grow as we recognize our full potential as a Bike Shop and Training Center for Youth, while continuing to feature expert mechanic services, refurbished bicycles, parts and accessories, and increased access to clinics on bicycle safety and mechanics. Please check our Unite Under One Roof FAQs, as we continue to share updates on our plan’s progress.

Photo by Chris Leong

How You Can Help

Use the bicycle as a vehicle for social change.

It has never been more crucial to take action to stop climate change, and we are proud to be an organization that has been able to put both environmental sustainability and social justice at the forefront of what we do each and every day. Our commitment to keeping thousands of bicycles out of the waste stream by giving these bikes a new life and continued value whether shipped internationally or refurbished locally by our youth and shop staff means that more underserved communities have access to environmentally friendly means of transportation, mutually benefitting both the earth and its inhabitants.

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Donate now.

Donating to support our mission is the best way you can ensure that Bikes Not Bombs’ Youth Pathways, International Partnerships and Bike Shop programs continue to grow. If each of the recipients of this e-newsletter donated just $10 today, we would be able to realize the dream of our Hub and Shop integration more fully by next year.

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Shop our fall sale.

This weekend, Friday, October 19th 1pm-6:30pm, Saturday, October 20th 9am-4pm, and Sunday, October 21st 12pm-4pm, we will be having a Fall Sale at the Bike Shop.Everything (except service, repairs and labor) will be 15% off. This includes:

refurbished and new bikes

used and new parts

accessories

apparel

The more you buy, the less we have to move. Every dollar you spend at the Bike Shop will help ensure our local youth programs and international partnership work continues to thrive. Every time you buy a refurbished bike, you keep a bike out of the waste stream and give it a new life.

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Take this short survey about our Bike Shop.

We value your feedback! By taking this short survey about our Bike Shop, you will help us understand what kinds of bikes and gear you’re looking for and how we may improve to serve your needs… and you just might win a BNB T-shirt! Please contact our Director of Learning and Evaluation, René Milet at rene@bikesnotbombs.org with any questions regarding this survey.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will pay nearly $20 million to turn the Boston area’s Hubway bike share system into Blue Bikes and expand the program with more than 1,000 new bikes and more than 100 new rental stations across the region.

“Blue Cross is committed to helping Massachusetts residents lead healthy lives, and this program is a way to bring that to life,” said Jeff Bellows, vice-president of corporate citizenship for BCBS. “Being a health-care company, it’s in line with what we want to do.”

BCBS will pay $18 million over six years to be the sole sponsor of the bike share system, which will be renamed Blue Bikes. The money will be used in part to fund a nearly 50 percent increase in bikes — by the end of 2019, there will be 3,000 Blue Bikes on the streets, up from 1,800 today — and add more than 100 new stations across Boston, Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville. The expansion will bring more service to underserved parts of the city, Bellows said.

“Communities like Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, they’re going to get additional access to these bikes,” he said. (via)

While I wish it was more of a public system, maybe tax based, but sure I will siphon off some of the obscene profits BCBS is making to fund bike share programs.

The best part of this is that Hubway/Blue Bikes will continue, and it will expand into areas that have not been served by it so far.

OSAKA, Japan (BRAIN) — Shimano’s overall sales were $1.52 billion (156.3 billion Yen) over the first six months of the year, compared to $1.3 billion (133.1 billion Yen) last year. Sales of bicycle components are up 19 percent to $1.2 billion (125.7 billion Yen) and are 80 percent of the company’s overall business. Shimano attributed its bike business increase to improving financial conditions in its three major markets — Europe, the United States and Japan.

Imagine a giant figure 8 loop around the downtown core of the city of dedicated car free cycle tracks for cyclists.

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I really like this idea, I think it has potential as not only a way to see all the historic sights in Boston, but also as a downtown Bike Freeway system. Providing a way to get around the core of the city (and beyond) on a high capacity dedicated bike way.

Most importantly it can be used as an foundation to build future infrastructure from. Check out this meeting and attend to support this great idea!

The Connect Historic Boston Bike Trail is a proposal for “a family-friendly bicycle loop around downtown Boston.” To make Causeway Street family-friendly will require a physically separate bike lane (a.k.a. cycletrack) for bikes, and new improvements for pedestrians. The Boston Cyclists Union, LivableStreets Alliance, MassBike and WalkBoston invite you to show up and speak up at a meeting presenting a new plan for Causeway Street — a crucial link the proposed Connect Historic Boston Bike Trail downtown.

Looks pretty cool, and they are pretty close to their goal. I am digging this movement towards fashionable, city bike based, transportation oriented cycling. I am thinking in a couple years we will start seeing cargo bikes, city bikes, parents with kids on bikes, and a lot more diverse population of folks riding to work. To the future!

Hubway had a good year last year, with half a million trips before shutting down for the winter.

They reopened the service April 2, and as of May 7th had already logged 85,000 trips. If they keep up this pace the system should hit 1 million plus trips this year. See the email they sent me below.

We’ve made it! Another winter is under our collective belts and the miles are starting to pile up on the Hubway fleet. Did you know that since we reopened the system on April 2, riders have logged more than 85,000 trips? That’s right, Hubway is #RealTransportation.

Hubway is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with Bicycle Benefits, your single source for discounts at local businesses throughout metro-Boston and beyond, available to you simply by riding your bike and wearing a helmet. Beginning May 1, every Hubway member will receive a Bicycle Benefits sticker in their new member packet! Affix the sticker to your helmet and you’re ready to enjoy exclusive savings at great local businesses! Already a Hubway member? Follow Hubway on Facebook and Twitter to learn when we’ll be out and about around town. Show us your Hubway key fob and your helmet, and we’ll hook you up with your own sticker! Visit http://www.thehubway.com/bicycle-benefits for a list of participating businesses and to learn more about this great program.

And don’t forget that May is National Bike Month and here in Massachusetts, May 11th-19th is Bay State Bike Week. There are dozens of great events to choose from so get on a bike and ride!

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85,000 trips during April (an admittedly cold miserable month) rivals some of the busiest months the system had last year, one can assume that once the weather is really nice the trip counter is going to smoke it goes up so fast.

One can hope that the success of the program will allow them to expand the system into Dorchester, and other under-served neighborhoods. These areas could really benefit from such a reliable and cheap form of transportation.

I personally have seen more Hubway riders in the last couple weeks than ever before, the streets are thick with them during commute times, and on the weekends. I love it, long live Hubway!

Got the following in the email, if you cycling in those parts look for this new shop.

Boston Bike Guy will have a grand opening Feb. 1st of a new bike shop in
Quincy, Ma.
1450 Hancock Street
about 2 blocks from redline station.
Cheapest Bicycle repair rates around and used bikes for sale and new bikes
to come later, parts and accesories.